Torque for the iPhone Licensing
by Brett Seyler · 08/21/2008 (12:13 am) · 68 comments
Well, we've mulled over a licensing model for our new iTorque (yes, that's the new name, thank you Raphael!) SDK long enough and we're finally ready to announce the licensing model and pricing. Thanks for all the feedback on the thread I posted earlier this week and for all the offers to help with development. We're nearing the level of documentation and ease of use where I think we'll be comfortable opening this up full bore at Indie prices soon, but for now, this is for pros / experts only. We want to ensure only those who won't be frustrated by commercial grade tools will be working with it at this stage, but don't worry, we're going to provide updates to both TGE and TGB on Mac / PC that will let you guys get going in earnest on Mac / PC right away targeting the 480x320 and 320x480 resolution outputs. Your current TGE and TGB project will accept these changes easily, so no worries about porting to these upcoming updates.
Here's what we're going to do:
Indie Licensing (non-transferable, per seat, for those licensees with less than $250k annual turnover)
For current owners of TGE:
$500 for the iTGE SDK and right to publish 1 title. $100 per title thereafter. No royalties, ever.
For current owners of TGB:
$500 for the iTGB SDK and right to publish 1 title. $100 per title thereafter. No royalties, ever.
Commercial Licensing (transferable, per seat)
For current owners of TGE:
$1000 for the iTGE SDK and right to publish 1 title. $500 per title thereafter. No royalties, ever.
For current owners of TGB:
$1000 for the iTGB SDK and right to publish 1 title. $500 per title thereafter. No royalties, ever.
As of now, we'll only be providing the SDK under the terms above to Commercial licensees, but we'll be opening it up under the Indie License and price very soon. Those who are participating in the ongoing development of the SDK will have rights to produce unlimited titles at no cost (thanks again to those of you helping speed this up). If any of you will be at PAX, come see us and we'll be showing some demo iTorque apps live. Cool stuff =)
FAQ
Q. How do I get iTorque?
A. Right now iTorque is only available under Commercial license. Indie licenses will be available shortly. Contact licensing@garagegames.com for more information or to purchase a license.
Q. I'm making a TGE / TGB game now. Will it work with iTGE / iTGB on the iPhone?
A. Yes. Nearly all TGE's features will be supported, but as always, you'll need to watch your memory and consider the hardware. The input mapping is obviously different as well, so you'll need to consider that in your game design.
Q. I want to buy a license for an unlimited number of developers / titles. Do you offer any other choices?
A. Yes. Studio licenses will start at $10k for the SDK and first title. An unlimited number of titles will be more. Contact licensing@garagegames.com for more details.
Q. I'm an Indie. Why can't I license iTorque at the Indie price now?
A. We're concerned that the product will be too difficult to work with for most amateur hobbyist developers at this stage, so only after we're satisfied that the documentation is solid and learning curve is not so steep will we roll this out under the Indie License.
Q. Will iTorque require a splash screen?
A. Yes.
Q. Will iTorque developers be able to share code resources on GG.com?
A. Yes. We'll make sure that the Torque community is free to work together on projects. We're working with Apple on this now. It may be a condition of the license agreement that you agree to post code / script resources on private forums only where other iTorque licensees have access.
Q. Will iTorque work with TGEA games? Will we ever see iTGEA?
A. Not at the moment. TGEA does offer some performance advantages, even at the fixed function level over TGE. The code is also cleaner and has been used by our studio more recently to produce games. The biggest advantage of TGEA over TGE, the advanced visual features like shaders and such, will not be portable to the iPhone though. The iPhone hardware won't support shaders. There may be reason in the future to deprecate these features in a port of TGEA to create an iTGEA though.
Q. Will iTorque work with Torque X / XNA games?
A. No. The iPhone uses an OpenGL ES graphics layer that's not at all compatible with Torque X or XNA.
Any other questions? Feel free to ask in the comments.
-Brett
About the author
Since 2007, I've done my best to steer Torque's development and brand toward the best opportunities in games middleware.
#62
The iPod range is Apple's main income, or so I've read on the Internet (source of most lies, but also a little truth). They did stoop to releasing iTunes on Windows, so you never know what they might do next. I hear it even forces Safari on Windows users now.
If there is one app which sells a Mac, though, for me it's really Scrivener. For the rest of you, this iTorque family of products could at least be a reason to buy a Mac Mini. Wait a little, though, as both the Mini and the Macbook range are due for an upgrade anytime soon.
08/29/2008 (1:06 pm)
Macs can use any USB mouse. I've never once in my life control-clicked! No worries there :)The iPod range is Apple's main income, or so I've read on the Internet (source of most lies, but also a little truth). They did stoop to releasing iTunes on Windows, so you never know what they might do next. I hear it even forces Safari on Windows users now.
If there is one app which sells a Mac, though, for me it's really Scrivener. For the rest of you, this iTorque family of products could at least be a reason to buy a Mac Mini. Wait a little, though, as both the Mini and the Macbook range are due for an upgrade anytime soon.
#63
08/29/2008 (1:54 pm)
Cool, thanks for the tip too :) 
#64
You have to use the sdk to "sign" your application before posting to the App Store.
08/29/2008 (3:19 pm)
I have a mac book pro, iTouch, iPhone, and am already an authorized iPhone Apps Store Developer. :)You have to use the sdk to "sign" your application before posting to the App Store.
#65
Also why are you guys worried about how much more money you can make? C'mon where's the passion in making games? Just don't quit your day job (yet) and churn out awesome simple but fun titles for new audiences.
08/31/2008 (6:28 pm)
@Leroy, they're not only getting lots of Mac sales but also a lot of Leopard sales. Greedy bastards, I was forced to upgrade because you cannot install the SDK on anything below it. Been making progress on my engine until I saw this, now I'm dumping my engine like a slut and polishing my game design :). I Can't wait for Sep. 31, I hope they won't get delayed.Also why are you guys worried about how much more money you can make? C'mon where's the passion in making games? Just don't quit your day job (yet) and churn out awesome simple but fun titles for new audiences.
#66
Anyhow, thanks all for bringing me up to speed on some aspects/facts of the world of mac dev, it's been very useful information. I feel all the more positive about it in future just to know I can have a 2+ button mouse (all the tutorials videos I've watch always say control click for mac, so I assumed it wasn't normal/possible to have right-click without using control key) Thanks again :)
09/01/2008 (10:49 am)
@Edrian: Ah, I didn't realise that either, sucks about you having to dump your engine though. So not only do they sell more macs but they keep old users current, boy these guys don't miss a trick. I don't think theres really anything in vista (other then directx 10) thats a necessity to be able to use any software/sdk (yet).Anyhow, thanks all for bringing me up to speed on some aspects/facts of the world of mac dev, it's been very useful information. I feel all the more positive about it in future just to know I can have a 2+ button mouse (all the tutorials videos I've watch always say control click for mac, so I assumed it wasn't normal/possible to have right-click without using control key) Thanks again :)
#67
09/01/2008 (4:32 pm)
@Leroy, the engine that I have is in its early stages (2 weeks of part-time dev) so it's not really a big loss, Torque will save me a lot of time to focus on the essentials especially in the long run. Regarding on the mac mouse control+click, it's either they are die hard mac fanboys or severely uninformed, because by default secondary button (right click) is off, you gotta go to system preferences > keyboard and mouse to enable it.
#68
09/02/2008 (12:42 am)
Glad to hear it :). Thanks for the information too, seems sensible to have right-click as an option by default without having to buy an another mouse!
Torque Owner Leroy Frederick
@Britton: Nice dream (on both counts), would be a sweet reality, but like Marc said, it seems unlikely, this is apple were talking about after all, and I'm sure they want more mac sells/adoption :-P
I still think apple should bite the bullet and add a right-click button on their mice, all this control click stuff is long (although I've heard you can buy a mac compatible mouse that does that right?) :)